No grant of any land which shall have been settled continuously for five years previously, upon which taxes shall have been paid at any time within such five years by the person having settled the same, or any person claiming under him, shall be valid; and any title which the Commonwealth may have to such land shall be relinquished to the person in possession of the land claiming the same under such settlement and payment to the extent of the boundary line enclosing the same. But such boundary line shall not include more than 1,500 acres; and any person who has made such settlement and paid such taxes, or anyone claiming under him, may have the land surveyed, and prove the settlement and payment before the circuit court of the county where the land, or a greater part thereof, lies, whereupon such court shall order the plat and certificate of survey to be recorded. Such record shall be conclusive evidence in any controversy between the claimant thereunder and any person claiming under a location of the land made after the date of such order. This section shall relate as well to land forfeited for nonpayment of taxes, or for the failure to have the same entered on the commissioner’s books, or both those causes, and to land escheated or escheatable, as to waste and unappropriated lands.

History

Code 1950, § 41-39; 1970, c. 291.